The mystery of the Slenderbrows
by OperaKnishes
Summary: Alfred rediscovers the pages that he collected as a child and the ones that his mother hid from him. But why was that... It was all just part of a harmless prank like she had told him... right? Rated T for now. On-Going. More characters introduced later on.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

"Alfred, have you gotten that box out of the attic yet?"

Alfred pretended he didn't hear and continued playing the video game he was so engrossed in. He was just about to reach the next level and she just /had/ to come along and interrupt his game time. As much as he loved to help his mother out now really wasn't the time. Ever since his father had left all those years ago he had to help her out and his younger brother.

"Alfred… No dinner until you get the boxes down." she called out again, now that there was food on the line he just couldn't pretend any longer.

With a loud groan he took his headphones off and shouted back down, "Cant Matthew do it?" Of course, he didn't mean that. Although he didn't show it much he cared a lot for his brother.

"Of course not, you do it."

Nevertheless he paused his game then got up out of his favourite banana shaped bean bag chair. Alfred pulled down the stairs from the attic and walked up them. He coughed as the heavy air invaded his lungs, eurgh... it was horrid in here. The attic was a dark and crowded place covered in spider webs, snail trails and God knows what else. The young American narrowed his eyes as he carefully crept around, trying not to trip over the messily arranged boxes. The floorboards underneath him creaked, making him a bit nervous. Considering how old this house was the floor wasn't exactly stable. What made the whole situation worse was that he didn't even know what the box he was looking for looked like! Maybe

He decided to take a chance and pick a certain box. This box was just like all the ordinary boxes apart from that it was a bit more tattered then the rest. The lid had ductape over it but that didn't seem to put Alfred off, it just seemed to make him even more curious. He sat on the floor and pulled the light box on his lap and began to open it up, what he found inside was quite confusing.

"What are these pages?" Alfred stopped and dropped the box and the contents spilling them all over the attic floor, a sudden realisation soon kicked in. These were the pages he had found during his childhood, he had become so obsessed with finding the pages that his mother had been forced to take them from him. She seemed terrified of them yet no one could ever tell him why this was. Every one of them had a different picture on along with a message that had been written scruffily. One consistent thing on the pictures was there was always the same man... Or so, it looked like a man. A man with long eyebrows and a suit. The old papers were also tattered and torn at the edges but he did happen to find these out in the forest so that sort of was a good enough explanation.

"Alfred, are you alright?"

He panicked, he couldn't tell her about this. Not now anyway. His heart raced... This was possibly his one and only chance to find out what these were once and for all, "Yeah mom, I'm fine!" he shouted back, trying to disguise the strange excitement in his voice.

Alfred folded the papers up quickly and stuffed them into his trouser pocket before he picked up a random box to take down.

Going against his mothers wishes like this was... So exciting. He couldn't wait to tell Matthew about this.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1:

During dinner Alfred was silent for the first time. He was a very honest person that simply couldn't keep anything a secret which ended him in a whole range of troubles but instead there was just nothing. Alfred tried to move as little as possible so no one could hear the pieces of paper rustling in his pocket, his head was dizzy from all that was happening but he had to stay strong.

"Hey Matt... Want to come play video games with me?" He raised an eyebrow as a clue to say that wasn't what he really had planned which made Matthew feel a little uneasy. Ever since they were children Alfred had always try to get him into trouble, nowadays his mother realised how Alfred pressured her youngest son into these things and wouldn't blame him as much. Matthew nodded in response, trying to hide the fear in his face.

Alfred quickly dragged his younger brother up the stairs and shut the door behind them. He shakily removed the pages and shoved them to Matthews hands, "I found these while I was in the attic..." The younger of the two stared at the pages that were forced in to his hand, just looking at them made him shiver. Matthew's face was extremely pale, the pictures that stared back at him... he'd seen these sorts of things before in old legends and they usually weren't very good signs.

"Alfred... do you know what these are?"

Alfred who was pacing around his rather large room stopped and sadly shook his head, "That's why I brought you up here. I wanted to ask you." He took back the pages and displayed them across the desk. Each of them contained a message that was different from the other. 'Follows' ... 'cant run'... 'leave me alone' They both stood, taking a healthy amount of time to examine each page. The heavy rain outside hit the window with incredible force, startling the two out of their distant daydreams.

"Maybe we should tell mom?" Matthew suggested quietly. He knew it wasn't the best suggestion but it was a good place to start. Alfred shook his head violently and rested his hands on the others shoulders, "Promise me you won't tell her. **Promise**." Matthew shyly looked away, could he handle all this pressure? Keeping things from his own mother... but it was clear Alfred needed him now "I promise."

That was all Alfred needed, a small smile formed on his lips. He knew his brother better than anyone and he also knew that Matthew was an honest person. An idea emerged in Alfred's mind, he quickly picked up his laptop and jumped on his bean bag, "Let's check the internet and see what we can find." He patted next to the seat next to him, quietly telling Matthew to sit.

Matthew leant against his brother as they anxiously waited for the old laptop to load. It was as if time stood still as they stared at the loading screen. Alfred was shaking like one of those small dogs but that soon stopped once it loaded. It was possibly one of the most frightening times in both of their lives. "Alfred... What are we even going to search for?" Alfred opened up a web browser, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. He didn't even know himself. "How about just... Um..." The older of the two looked over at his desk and looked at what the pages said. "Lets just go on google and search something along the lines of strange ancient pages and look for a match?" And that was just what they did.

Many hours passed by without any luck in the search. The time was about 3am, the rain was still hammering outside making Alfred feel uneasy. The fact that he was exhausted didn't help much with his paranoia. Matthew had long ago fallen asleep, still leaning against him. Just as Alfred was about to give up the search and fall asleep right in his current spot he came across a page that he hadn't seen before. "Mattie! Mattie! Wake up I've found something." His once tired state seemed to have disappeared at the shock of this new-found evidence. Matthew awakened at the loud shouting. Considering he was a nervous person anyway didn't help him much, he looked up at his brother and replied, "Whats going on?" he rubbed his tired eyes and looked at his watch with a small frown. He wasn't meant to be up so late especially since they had school in the morning, "And be a little quieter, you're going to wake mom up."

"Alright sorry..." Alfred turned the laptop and showed Matthew what was on the screen. The web page was dark and basic, it looked poorly made. The colour scheme was horrendous but it gave them the information that was needed so they couldn't exactly complain. "Don't those look identical to our own pages?" He pointed at the images that were displayed on screen, they looked identical to the ones that Alfred had found previously.

Matthew reached over and took the pages off the desk then held them up beside the laptops screen, comparing the two. He sat like this silently for at least 10 minutes. He wanted to find a fault, he wanted to tell his brother that these were nothing alike but that would be a lie. "Yes... They happen to be exactly the same." he said in an almost whisper. Ever since their father had gone Matthew was convinced that they were cursed with bad luck and this just proved his suspicions right. "What do we do now then?"

"I'll read the article out to you." Alfred scrolled down a little displaying endless paragraphs of text. Matthew was quite impressed that he had even managed to stay focused long enough to read all that. He started at the top and worked his way down, reading out what was put. It took him a good several minutes to read out the whole story to his brother.

"Slenderbrows will find interest in a certain victim for unknown reasons. It would then contact the victim, if it is a child, presenting itself as friendly... The adults he stalks have all have a common trait they have all been through a terrible tragedy in their lives, even if the tragedy was actual done by Slenderbrows. If an adult, it would stalk the victim for long amounts of time causing what is known as 'Slender sickness# causing massive paranoia, nose bleeds, nightmares, hallucinations that appear only to the sick person, and many other dangerous symptoms. Eventually, it would abduct the victim into nearby forest, where they would be killed. In extreme cases, it may remove evidence of its existence by causing fire of their home, place of work, or school..." This all sounded quite familiar to him.

He looked up and checked to see if Matt was still listening which he was. "You okay so far?"

"Yeah I'm... I'm fine... Keep going."

Alfred was reluctant to continue, his brother looked really pale now, "Well... The victim would be impaled on branches of very tall trees while they were still alive and bleed to death. The organs however would be individually removed, then placed in plastic bags. They would then be replaced into the body in their original positions, plus the plastic bags. The victims' corpses do not show any sign of a struggle... Almost like they wanted it to happen-"

"Alright that's enough!" Matthew felt like he was going to be sick by now. All this talk of stalking and torture and strange illnesses was enough for him, "What are we going to do then?..." Alfred hadn't thought about that...

"We could run away and tell no one about it-" Alfred suggested which made Matthew just stare at him, sometimes he couldn't even tell whether he was joking or not. "I don't think that a good way out Alfred..." He mumbled back, tapping his own chin with his fingertips as he thought. "Maybe we could ask someone to help us at school tomorrow. Maybe Gil, Francis?... Anyone... We really need help."

The older brother agreed, there was nothing they could do about it now. He wrapped his arms around his brother, holding him close to him, "We'll get through this Matt, I promise." he whispered. He may have bullied his brother a lot but only he was allowed to do that. No one else could touch his brother but him, if anyone else even dared he'd have something to say about it.

"Can I stay here tonight? I'm too scared to sleep alone."

That made Alfred smile a little, his kinder side coming to show "Of course you can."


End file.
